Joshing
by Jeff
Image text: You'll be moved up from 49 of ~7 billion to 31 of ~7 billion.
Joshing means joking and the approximately 7 billion people is the population of the planet Earth.
Freedom
by Jeff
Image text: Sometimes I'm terrified to realize how many options other people have.
The joke is in the image text because it is a repetition of the first line of the comic but replacing "I" with "other people".
Devotion To Duty
by Jeff
Image text: The weird sense of duty really good sysadmins have can border on the sociopathic, but it's nice to know that it stands between the forces of darkness and your cat blog's servers.
This comic is a reference to the movie, Die Hard, in which Bruce Willis' character climbs through ventilation shafts and over broken glass to kill all the bad guys and rescue the hostages, including his wife. That building was called the Nakatomi Plaza in the movie.
Uptime is just as it appears and is a measure of how much the servers are online vs. offline and usually is expressed in a %.
Principle of Explosion
by Jeff
Image text: You want me to pick up waffle cones? Oh, right, for the wine. One sec, let me just derive your son's credit card number and I'll be on my way.
The principle of explosion means that if you assume that something is both true and untrue at the same time, then you can prove any conclusion. Usually, someone would prove that something is true or false, but in the comic, the principle is used to derive a phone number and a credit card number. The joke in the comic is taking the mathematical logic to the next level to make a joke about the first character's mom.
The equation in the third frame is the typical notation for a principle of explosion equation. It means "P and Not P". P represents some statement such as "the sky is blue". So, the equation is: "The sky is blue and the sky is NOT blue." From that premise, you can prove anything. In the comic, you can even prove a phone number or credit card number.
Honor Societies
by Jeff
Image text: Hey, why do YOU get to be the president of Tautology Clu-- wait, I can guess.
Tautology means to repeat the same phrase twice or two parts of a phrase that means the same thing. This comic is a take on the repetitive nature of "honor" in the Honor Society.
The answer to the image text would be: I'm the president of the Tautology Club because I'm the president of the Tautology Club.
Off Topic: Display Problems
by Jeff
UPDATE: And we are back to the middle, thanks everyone!
We'll get you back to your regularly scheduled explanations in a second, but just wanted to see if anyone is having display problems with the site.
i.e. - is the content showing on the far right?
If you are having trouble, please fire your browser and version into the comments.
Many apologies if it is not looking right for you and we are currently trying to get it fixed, so hopefully you will not see that much longer.
Snow Tracking
by Jeff
Image text: I suppose that's more accurately a hare dryer.
Moose and Squirrel is a reference to the Rocky and Bullwinkle series of cartoons.
Longcat is a internet meme from pictures of cats all stretched out that make them look very tall (or long).
Mouse riding Bicycle is a reference to Ralph S. Mouse, a series of novels by Beverly Cleary.
The image text is a pun on the Rabbit with a hair dryer frame.
Legolas is a reference to the character by the same name in the Lord of the Rings trilogy of books and movies.
Knight is a chess reference as the tracks move just like the knight piece in chess.
The two "Kid with" frames are a reference to Calvin and Hobbes.
Prius is a reference to current events in which the car Toyota Prius's pedals have malfunctioned causing accidents.
The final frame is the Higgs Boson which is an elementary particle they are attempting to find evidence of in the Large Hadron Collider.
Anyone know what the Bobcat on a Pogo Stick is a reference to? That's the only one I can't get.
Science Valentine
by Jeff
Image text: You don't use science to show that you're right, you use science to become right.
Well, there's a downer for ya.
Complexion
by Jeff
Image text: Why do all my attempts at science end with me being punched by Batman? (P.S. benzoyl peroxide soap works great.)
This comic is a reference to the Batman villain "Two-Face". Because the main character had pimples on one side of his face and not the other, he resembled the Batman villain. Two-Face is also fond of flipping a coin to decide what to do. The two different sides of his face and the flipping of the coin is what drew Batman into the comic.
Trimester
by Jeff
Image text: Also, it's not like anyone actually calls up the Nobel committee to double-check things.
In this comic, the main character dresses up in a lab coat and pretends to be an OBGYN for a the pregnant character in this comic.
The female pregnant character doesn't look too pregnant in this comic. How to draw a pregnant stick figure I wonder?